Season glance: Games 23-25 – Mizzou Today: Missouri Tigers Football & Basketball Recruiting

After 22 games, I have the Tigers with a record of 16-6 overall and 5-4 in SEC play. We’re getting into the final portion of the season as we look at matchups with Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Georgia.

The Aggies enter the season ranked No. 13 in the AP poll and No. 16 in the KenPom rankings.

Texas A&M went 21-15 overall last season and 9-9 in conference play and won two games in the SEC Tournament before going into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed and beating No. 8 Nebraska. The Aggies then lost to No. 1 Houston in the second round.

Texas A&M opened last season with a couple of wins, including one over Ohio State and another against Penn State, but then lost to FAU, Virginia and Houston in the three highest-ranked matchups of the non-conference season. The Aggies lost their first two SEC games, but beat No. 6 Kentucky in overtime and beat Missouri 63-57 a few games later to get to 3-3 in conference play.

The team’s matched up again quickly, just three games later, and Texas A&M won 79-60.

Texas A&M leads the all-time series with Missouri 26-20 and has won the past four matchups. Missouri’s last win was a 70-66 victory in College Station in 2022.

Missouri won 11 of the first 13 matchups from 1969-through-2004, but the Aggies have since won 24-of-33.

Buzz Williams is starting his sixth season in College Station and looking to make his third consecutive NCAA Tournament.

Graduate guard Wade Taylor IV (6-foot, 0-inches, 180-pounds) is back for what feels like the millionth year after leading the team with 19.1 points and 4.0 assists per game in 36 appearances. He shot 36.6 percent from the field and 32.5 percent from 3.

Senior forward Andersson Garcia (6-7, 220) is back after averaging 9.1 rebounds per game and graduate forward Henry Coleman III (6-8, 250) is back after averaging 8.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.

The Aggies added senior guard Zhuric Phelps (6-4, 190) from SMU in the portal (No. 66 in Rivals’ rankings), as well as junior forward/center Pharrel Payne (6-9, 250) from Minnesota (No. 117 in Rivals’ rankings).

Phillips started 32 games for SMU and led the team in scoring with 14.8 points per game, while adding 4.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals per contest. He was named to the All-AAC second team.

Payne played in 32 games and started 19 for the Golden Gophers and averaged 10.0 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while blocking a team-high 44 shots.

The Aggies also added four-star freshman forward George Turkson from Massachusetts and three-star guard Andre Mills from Massachusetts. I guess they sent one recruiter to exactly one place.

Texas A&M lost to Houston in an exhibition on Sunday and will open the season playing UCF in Florida on Monday.

The Aggies will play Ohio State, Oregon, Creighton, Wake Forest, Texas Tech and Purdue in non-conference play this season.

I think Phillips and Garcia are going to be problems this season, it helps to have a million years of college basketball experience.

So I’m going to give this one to the Aggies.

Ahh great, another 8 p.m. game in the middle of the week.

Oklahoma enters the season at No. 40 in the KenPom rankings after going 20-12 overall last season with an 8-10 record in Big 12 play.

The Sooners beat Iowa, USC and Arkansas in non-conference play last year, while dropping a matchup with North Carolina.

Conference play was tougher on the Sooners as they dropped five of their last seven games leading into the Big 12 Tournament, which they bowed out of with a first-round loss to TCU.

Senior forward Jalon Moore (6-7, 215) is the highest-scoring returner on roster after recording 11.1 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last season, while blocking 32 shots in 31 games, which he started all of.

Moore leads a group of six returners, five transfers and four freshmen.

Senior forward Sam Godwin (6-10, 240) is the only other returning starter after averaging 6.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

Duke Miles from High Point was the only transfer recruit ranked in Rivals’ top 250 the Sooners brought in. Miles (6-2, 188) a redshirt senior guard who played three seasons at Troy before going to High Point for the 2022-23 seasons, averaged 17.5 points, 3.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game last year. He appeared in 33 games and started 27.

The Sooners also brought in sixth-year guard Brycen Goodine (6-4, 190) who is on his fourth team after starting his career at Syracuse, transferring to Providence for his sophomore and junior seasons then going to Fairfield for the past two years.

Goodine started seven games and made 31 appearances last year, averaging 13.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game last season.

Oklahoma brought in three freshmen led by four-star guard Jeremiah Fears along with three-star guard Dayton Forsythe and three-star forward Koul Atak.

Oklahoma opens the season hosting Lindenwood on Monday and will maybe play a good opponent in the second or third round of the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Sooners will face Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State and Michigan before starting conference play.

I’m not very impressed with the group fourth-year coach Porter Moser brought in to try to reach the NCAA Tournament for his first time in Norman.

I think Missouri welcomes the Sooners to the SEC with a loss.

The Tigers face another winnable game against the Bulldogs who enter the season at No. 65 in the KenPom rankings after going 20-17 overall last season and 6-12 in SEC play.

The Bulldogs lost to Oregon, Miami and Providence in non-conference play, while beating Wake Forest and Florida State.

The Bulldogs kicked off conference play by beating Missouri 75-68, then beat the Tigers 64-59 in the first round of the SEC Tournament.

With those two wins last year, Georgia has cut Missouri’s all-time series lead to 11-10. The Tigers last won 85-63 in Athens, Georgia, in 2023 to finish a three-game Missouri winning streak in the series. The Tigers had taken six of the past seven matchups after that game.

Georgia went to the NIT last season and beat Xavier, Wake Forest and Ohio State before losing to Seton Hall in the semifinals.

The Bulldogs lost two of their top three scorers from last season and return only one player who started more than 12 games in sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr. (6-5, 195). Demary Jr. averaged 9.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.49 assists and 1.41 steals per game.

Georgia added two transfer recruits ranked in the Rivals top-250 in Tyrin Lawrence (No. 139) from Vanderbilt and Justin Abson (No. 218) from Appalachian State.

Lawrence, a 6-4, 200-pound graduate guard, started 28 games for the Commodores last season and averaged 13.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He finished No. 20 in scoring in the SEC and No. 12 in steals at 1.4 per game.

Abson, a 6-9, 245-pound junior forward, started 33 games last year and averaged 7.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game.

He was the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year and was the only player in Division I to record a six-block game.

Georgia brought in a solid recruiting class led by five-star forward Asas Newell (6-9, 200) from Montverde, Florida, and four-star center Somtochukwu Cyril (6-10, 241) from Atlanta. Three star guards Savo Drezgic (6-3, 190) and Jordyn Kee (6-4, 175) join the class as well.

Georgia beat Charlotte in an exhibition last Saturday and will open the season hosting Tennessee Tech on Monday.

The Bulldogs will play Georgia Tech, Marquette and Notre Dame in non-conference play. This will be the only regular-season matchup between Georgia and Missouri.

Once again, I am unimpressed with the group and wouldn’t be surprised if third-year coach Mike White’s seat is growing hot by the end of the season, even though he’s set up well for the year or two after this one.

I have the Tigers winning another two games in this stretch, which brings them to 18-7 overall and 7-5 in conference play. There’s only six games left on the schedule after this.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss the schedule and so much more.